Over the course of the past week I have had mixed reactions about what it means to be an African-American. We have been proud because we could stand behind our President as Congressman Joe Wilson shouted out “YOU LIE”. The remainder of the week brought us an out burst from Serena Williams at the US Open immediately followed by Kanye embarrassing himself at the expense of a 19 year old. If that all still wasn’t enough to shake up Black America we have to hear that Caster Semenya is on suicide watch because of how the media has treated her.

But on Friday, Tyler Perry released a Madea movie. Throughout the past 7 years Tyler’s movies have amassed $320 million and have a huge following in Black and White America yet he continues to be named as being Chief Coon by many in the black media and the blog world. I have an announcement about this…

TYLER PERRY IS NOT TO BLAME.

In fact, Tyler seeks to teach us all many valuable lessons. I truly believe that somewhere somebody has been touched by his movies. In fact, I believe a lot of people have been touched by his movies, but I am only going to choose two of them to prove my point. And since this one is new I am going to go here first:

1. I Can Do Bad All By Myself- First off all, I think every woman’s grandmother has told her about how you don’t need a man to do anything for you. In fact, SoWhatiff talked about this a little over on ThreeWaysToTakeIt yesterday, every woman needs to be able to do something on her own. But anyways, back to the point, we have to learn how to make it without depending on other people or turning heartless. Anyways, without giving away plot details, I’m just going to say we need to remember that we cannot love another unless we love ourselves. And when we do find out how to do both we will transcend to higher levels. I see nothing bad about this message…at least nothing as embarassing as threatening to shove a tennis ball down someone’s throat.

2. Why Did I Get Married?- If anything this movie shows us that marriage doesn’t always work out the way we want it. In fact, there will be difficult days, it will be a bumpy ride, but this movie shows that you can persevere. You might have to pray, you might have to separate…hell you may even be tempted to curse each other out, but you have to remember this person is supposed to be your life mate-you are partners. This movie taught many valuable lessons about how to handle being married, having married friends AND holding yourselves and the people around you accountable for their actions…

So good people, what black movies have you learned lessons from? What movies period? What are your feelings on the events of the past week? As a matter of fact, I’ve learned from lots of other movies too (but I am not sitting here all night to list them) so tell me some other good movie lessons? Do you still feel Tyler is bringing down Black society or do you find he is helping?